The Love Song Job
by Original Max A
Summary: Eliot returns to New Orleans and tries to relive his old life as a blues musician with the girl that got away, but his current life ends up interfering with the fantasy he thought he could have for just one night. Crossover/AU.
1. Reaquittance

This story is a combination of the show Leverage and the movie "Love Song" that starred Christian Kane (who played Billy Ryan) and the R&B singer Monica (who played Camille Livingston). It's a really cute movie so look it up on YouTube.

The song used in this story so far is Angel of Mine by Monica so if you play it, it does match the story and that is voice of the character Camille. And in case anyone is wondering, this is _not_ a song fic. Music played a big role in the movie "Love Song" so it is fitting for it to be in this fic. Thanks for reading

-Original Max A

Eliot smelled the sweet spice in the air that made New Orleans one for the most unique places on the planet. Whatever French he had picked up and retained, he had learned from here. The last time he had been in New Orleans, it had been for a job. There wasn't enough time for him to get nostalgic.

He went by some of this old hangout spots, the gas station he used to work at and some of his favorite clubs. Although it had been 4 years since Katrina, there was still evidence that things had never completely returned to normal. Xaiver University, a historically black college across the street from the gas station, still housed some of the prettiest girls this side of the Mississippi, but it looked like a third of the campus was still not operational.

Eliot walked on and decided to run by Thelma's, a blues club where he used to play under the name Billy Ryan. He missed those times, in the late nineties, when most people knew him as an up-and-coming blues musician. Many people, including several local legends, complimented his talents and soulful performances. Back then, he didn't have any fame or influences outside of a few block and bars, but that was how he liked it. The New Orleans music community was small, but full of creative energy that pulled from a variety of genres and cultures, just like the city itself.

In those days, his guitar was his best friend as opposed to his fists that were just occasional allies. He had started his retrieval career back then also. He only worked part-time, taking a job or two every few months. It was just enough to keep him afloat when music and mechanics wasn't paying the bills.

He turned up the street and didn't see the sign that he had been expecting. Instead, over the door where he heard music sweetening the air, he saw his name. Or what used to be his name. The sign "_Billy's Blues Bar_" swung in the wind.

Although he was surprised, Eliot took sure, confident steps to the entrance of the bar. After being frisked for weapons (they didn't include his hands and feet), Eliot froze as he looked at the singer on stage. She was beautiful. Her smooth caramel skin gave her a warm radiance and she sang her heart out. Her defined arms gave her dance moves power as she grooved across the stage in her zebra-striped high heel boots. Her hair was short and styled… just like he remembered. The woman in front of him looked so much more at peace than the one who had broke his heart so many years ago by marrying another man.

She finished her song and Eliot joined in the long round of claps that let her know that her work was appreciated.

"Thank you," she said to the crowd, "I appreciate you all coming to Billy's. I'm Camille. I'm gonna let open mic night start in a minute, but can I sing one more song for you?"

The crowd roared in approval.

"Alright. This song is about one of those runaway romances. The forget-your-troubles, all-night, all day, I-only-go-to-sleep-so-I-can-dream-about-you kinda love and take it from me. If you ever find a love like that, don't let it go," she finished.

The music started with horns making themselves known followed by the bop of the drums. With her eyes closed, Camille nodded her head to music. She turned to face the audience. When she opened her eyes, she locked eyes with Eliot and missed her cue. Her band members looked at each other confused. Camille's dedication was legendary and she never gave anything less than a perfect performance. They started the intro again. Camille raised her hand up, silencing the band. She looked at them.

"Thank you," she said and looked back at Eliot, "But I think I'm going to do this own my own."

She cradled the microphone and let her soft, but powerful alto voice flow over the audience as she sang for the country boy with long hair in the back.

When I first saw you I already knew  
There was something inside of you  
Something I thought that I would never find  
Angel of Mine

Eliot thought about the first time he met Camille Livingston. She had pulled into his gas station late at night with her girlfriends. She had started to pump her gas herself, but he saw her and walked over to help her out. It had been a long day at the garage and he still needed to play a gig that night, but he had been raised to be a gentleman so he wouldn't feel right about leaving a girl at his station by herself even if he had been ready to call it quits an hour ago. She was pretty so he couldn't help flirting with her a little bit, but his heart wasn't really in it at the time.

I look at you looking at me  
Now I know why they say the best things are free  
Gonna love you boy you are so fine  
Angel of Mine

Later that night they ran into each other at _Thelma's Blues Bar_ and he found out it was Camille's birthday. He had washed all of the grime off from the garage and reintroduced himself to Camille. He also played a song and dedicated a song to her that night, trying to get her to dance with him. He was feeling better so he thought it was a good time to make a better impression. She smiled at him more and he could read the slight dilation in her eyes so he thought he had accomplished his mission.

How you changed my world you'll never know  
I'm here for now, you helped me grow

You came into my life  
Sent from above  
When I lost the hope  
You show my love  
I'm checkin for you  
Boy your right on time  
Angel of Mine

He had saw her again with her boyfriend as he was playing a gig at the same place where they were having a date. Her boyfriend waved him over and complimented on him on his playing. Eliot invited them both to see him play later in the week and he happily found out that Camille's boyfriend was going out of town for a week.

Nothing means more to me then what we share  
No one in this world can ever compare  
That night the way you moved is still on my mind  
Angel of Mine

What you mean to me you'll never know  
Deep inside I need to show

She came to his show alone and he spent the next week showing her the world. And he found out she had a killer voice and they shared a love for music, blues, jazz, salsa and everything in between. Every night, she got lighter, freer and he saw how her smile got brighter as they spent more time together.

I never knew I could feel each moment  
As if they were new  
Every breath that I take  
The love that we make  
I only share it with you  
You, You, You, You

When I first saw you I already knew  
There was something inside of you  
Something I thought that I would never find  
Angel of Mine

Although, they were great together, Camille had made it clear that she wasn't going to do anything that would jeopardize her relationship with her boyfriend, Calvin, and her parents loved him. So Eliot convinced her to sing with him to channel their obvious chemistry. They practiced and performed together and after one performance, Camille pulled him to her and kissed him. She had decided to be with him.

How you changed my world you'll never know  
I'm here for now you helped me grow

Two days later, he had been expecting her to come by his place to rehearse with the band he had put together. Instead, she came with an engagement ring and a prepared speech about how happy her parents were. They fought and he never saw her again. He lost some of his love for music and took a job that he had been sitting on to Bolivia. The Camille he knew that been so closed and concerned about what others thought he couldn't believe it was the same woman who was singing to him right now. But it was her and she was radiant.

I look at you looking at me  
Now I know why they say the best things are free  
Checkin' for you boy your right on time  
Angel of Mine

Quiet tears fall from Camille's eyes as she left her exposed heart on stage. The crowd was silent as she walked down the stairs to the audience floor. She bumped by the people until a hand clasped hers. She looked up. Eliot looked at her in a way that warmed her spirit and rebuilt the connection that they shared. Her eyes softened and shoulders relaxed as she looked into his eyes. She smiled, soft and sweet with the aura of a sudden and beautiful revelation, like the first time she kissed him.

"Billy," she said softly. Eliot pulled her in close to him, unsure if he was every going to let her know that the man she fell in love with and loved her in return never really existed.


	2. Restart

Eliot held Camille close to in a fierce hug that brought out protective instincts he thought were long buried. She felt the muscles in his arms hold her, giving her comfort and safety. For a moment, he made her feel like the most valued woman on the planet. His scent relaxed her, bringing her back to a time when she felt free and New Orleans came alive with adventure and possibility.

Eliot pulled back. Camille closed her eyes, focusing on the feeling of his fingers across her skin. Camille's eyes had lost some of the innocence that he had remembered. The woman in front of him definitely had a story to tell, but he was sure that intensity of the past nine years showed up in his face as well. Camille took his hand and kissed it. She looked up at him.

"Let's get out of here."

She led him out the back to the walkup that led to her apartment upstairs. Camille fiddled with the lock.

"Camille…" Eliot started.

Camille turned to him, "Billy, please."

She wasn't sure what she was asking for, but she didn't want him to leave. Eliot nodded and Camille opened her door. Camille flicked on the lights.

"Have a seat anywhere," said Camille as she went deeper into her apartment

Eliot had sat down in the couch next to the door in the small apartment. He looked up and saw a picture of Camille with a group of middle and high school girls on the mantle. He walked up to the picture and picked up. He smiled.

"You went back to social work?" he asked.

"Hm?" she asked, coming back with two beers in her hand.

Eliot showed her the pictures that he had been looking at. She gave him his beer and smiled.

"Yeah. You know two of those girls are going to college next year. I'm so proud of them," she beamed.

"What about the girls I met?" Eliot asked.

A deep sadness crossed Camille's face, "I don't know. When I left, I tried to keep up with them, but it was hard. And after Katrina…"

Camille shook herself, "It feels good to help out again."

"I know what you mean," Eliot replied.

"So what have you been doing with yourself, Billy Ryan?" Camille asked cheerfully.

Eliot looked at her in complete seriousness, "I'm not gonna pretend that everything is alright between us."

"I don't want you too. I just… I was hoping that we could talk before we… talk," Camille got out.

"Small talk's a waste of time, darlin'." Eliot replied curtly.

"Yeah," Camille reluctantly agreed.

"You're not married anymore," Eliot stated.

Camille raised her bare left hand up, "No. You were right. It was all too heavy. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. But I was so busy worrying about everyone else's needs, I didn't realize what was happening to me."

"What changed?"

"Katrina," Camille replied," I saw those people on T.V. suffering, drowning and all I could think was I know those people. One of my girls could have trapped in the Astrodome. Their families could be among those that drowned. My college was underwater. I looked at my safe, bourgeois life in Georgia and thought 'What the hell am I doing here?"

She looked up at Eliot, "I tried to talk to Calvin into coming her and you know what said? 'Just send some money to the Red Cross, Cammie. We've got more important things to do here' Next day I was gone."

"Must have been hard for you," said Eliot, remembering how much family and commitment meant to Camille. Her desire to please her parents and do what was expected of her was the main thing that tore them apart.

"You have no idea," Camille said and then looked up at him, "Well, I guess you do."

Camille took a step toward Eliot and reached toward his face, "I looked for you when I came back."

Eliot grabbed her wrist, stopping her movement. He leaned back from her, keeping space between them.

"I moved on, " he stated.

Camille swallowed and put her hands down, "I kind of figured."

She took a breath, "Where'd you go?"

"All over," Eliot replied evasively.

"On tour?" Camille suggested.

Eliot didn't want to lie to her, but telling her the whole truth that basically amounted to him being a mercenary was out of the question. Apart of him liked that she still thought of him as the creative musician he once was.

"No. I was doing freelance work. I went where the money was."

Camille narrowed her eyes at him in disbelief.

"And music?" she questioned.

"It's been a long time."

Eliot watched as something bordering on disappointment crossed Camille's face. He felt some satisfaction knowing that he had been in her thoughts, but he also knew whatever image she had of him didn't match the man that he was now.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Camille said finally.

Eliot shifted his weight, surprisingly uncomfortable with the idea of disappointing her despite the fact that whatever they had ended almost a decade ago.

"So," he started, changing the subject, "What happened to Thelma?"

"She moved to Texas to take care of her family. They were relocated by F.E.M.A. She sold the place to me."

Eliot held a hand up and chuckled, "Wait. You own _Thelma's Blues Bar_. You. Who barely went to music clubs in New Orleans until I showed you around?"

Camille put her hands on her hips, "Yes. I do. And I'm good at it too."

Eliot nodded, "I have no doubt."

He thought about the sign he saw outside.

"So _you_ named it…" Eliot let the sentence drift off.

Camille lifted up her shirt and showed Eliot her belly ring.

"You remember when I got this?" she asked.

Eliot smiled at her.

"You told me I needed a mojo, something to give me strength and I said that you give me strength, but you couldn't fit in my pocket so I got this instead," said Camille and put her shirt down.

"I remember," Eliot replied.

"After our fight," she continued, "I took the ring out and the hole closed. When I came back and Thelma told me that she would give me the bar, I felt like I needed you more than ever, even though I hadn't seen you years. So I did the next best thing,"

She laughed, "It's my mojo."

Eliot felt the pull to mutter an apology out of shame for not being the Billy Ryan that Camille remembered, the one that she drew strength from.

"So what do you do now?" she asked.

Eliot was happy he could answer this question with pride, "I help people out of a private firm."

"A foundation," Camille asked.

Eliot nodded, "The Leverage Foundation."

"Do you like it?" she asked.

Eliot smiled, "I love my job."

Camille smiled back, "Glad to hear it"

Suddenly shots rang out and blasted holes through Camille's window. Eliot grabbed her and threw her to the ground as bullets wizzed over their heads.


	3. Aftermath

Bullets, glass shards and wooden splinters darted through air as Camille clutched Eliot's shirt, burying herself in him as he used his body to shield her from lethal debris. His chest swallowed the sound of her cries as she prayed for deadly sounds to fall into silence.

As soon as the bullets stopped, Eliot leapt off the ground with murder in his eyes. His brain tunneled on the singular goal of finding and killing the ones who made his Camille cry out in desperate, heart-wrenching fear. Camille held on tighter to his shirt and looked at him with haunting brown eyes.

"Please, no," was all she could get out.

Eliot looked at her. Her body was still shaking from the attempt on her life.

"I have to…"

"Please," she pleaded, her eyes shining with tears.

Eliot burned with the need to punish the cowardly gunmen, but he couldn't leave her. She needed him and it had been a long time since someone had needed him like that.

"Ok," he said softly, "Ok"

He sank back on his knees and held her as she cried.

"We need to get out of here," he said when she finally calmed down enough to listen to him.

"Billy, I… " she started and then the door was kicked open.

Eliot leapt up, ready for a fight. An older, but muscular man filled the doorway, followed by the bouncer that Eliot passed on his way inside the bar. The older gentleman surveyed the damage and looked directly at Eliot.

"You okay, Miss Camille?" the gentleman asked also looking ready to jump to Camille's defense.

"I'm fine, Andy," Camille replied with her eyes closed. On her knees surrounded by a bullet holes and broken glass, she looked anything but fine, but she continued as if her apartment didn't look like the set of a gangster movie.

"This is my friend, Billy," she said without looking at anybody, "Billy, Andy. He does odd jobs around the club and sometimes tends bar."

"I don't think…" Eliot started.

"And that's Big Mike behind him. He's really sweet. Just had a baby, you know," she finished. Her voice was hollow as if small talk was the only thing keeping her together.

Andy met Eliot's eyes, seeing a concern that mirrored his own.

"Della called the police. They'll be here soon," Andy stated in soothing tone.

Camille let out a harsh laugh and finally turned to look at Andy, "Did she? Well you can tell her to call them back and politely inform them that we don't require their services."

"Miss Camille…"

Camille got up, "Andy, thank you for being concerned, but I already told what I wanted you to do."

Andy looked at Eliot again, but this time with a question in his eyes, looking at Camille and then back at Eliot's face. Eliot gave him a small nod.

"I'll get to it right now," Andy responded and left the room.

Camille dusted herself off and let out a light smile, "That was an adventure."

Eliot grabbed Camille's arms and forced her to looked at him, "Camille, what the HELL is going on?"

"Will you please let go of me?" she asked.

"No." he said.

Camille tried to shrug off his grip, but he held on tighter.

"Excuse me. I have some cleaning to do," she stated.

"Not until I get some answers," he replied.

"What do you want me say, Billy?"

"Acting like your apartment just got shot up would be a start because News Flash! It did!"

Camille took a breath, "Moping is not going to help. I just need to clean up and get some sleep."

"You're crazy if you think I'm letting you sleeping here," Eliot stated.

Camille raised her eyebrow, "Let me? I haven't seen you over 8 years. What makes you think I need your permission to do anything?"

Eliot moved his hand to face, tilting her head to look up at him, "Because I'm not letting you die just because you're scared. They are coming back, Camille and you know it."

Eliot's voice dropped into a dead serious tone, "This wasn't a hit. If they wanted you dead, you'd be dead. This was a warning. I don't know what you're into or who pissed off, but if you are even half the woman I remember, then you deserve to be safe and protected. I can do it if you let me."

Camille put her hand on Eliot's wrist and pulled his hands down, "You can't protect me. No one can. And I couldn't stand it if you got hurt."

Eliot turned his hand so he was able to clasp her hand tightly, "The people I work for deal with things like this all the time. We work with good people in bad situations who can't go the cops."

Camille let his hands go and stepped away from him, "I can't believe this."

"What?"

"You," she said, throwing her hand in his direction, "You can't just run in on a white horse and solve all my problems. Nothing works like that. Life does not work like that. Nothing's that easy."

Eliot cocked his head to the side, "You damned right it ain't easy. And sure ain't fair, because if it were we would have never met. You would not have bullet holes in your cabinets. And I wouldn't still hear your voice every time I try to play a single note of music."

"Why do it then? Why try to save me?" she asked.

He closed his eyes, searching for the correct answer that would get her to come with him without saying too much about what's she still meant to him, but he could only speak truth.

"Cause it's the right thing to do," he said finally, "And the one thing you and I have always been together… is right. It's always been right, Camille."

Camille looked like she was about cry again, "Then how did it go so wrong?" she choked out.

"I don't know," Eliot replied and held his hand out to Camille, "But you stay alive long enough, we can find out."

Camille looked from Eliot's hand to his face and back again. She knew all the reasons she shouldn't take his hand, but none of them seemed good enough. As he led her out of her bullet-riddled apartment, Camille realized he wasn't lying. It had been a long time since she felt something like the comfort that came from holding his hand. It felt… right.

* * *

"Do you remember the last time you asked us to help out one of your ex-girlfriends? We almost when to jail," Hardison said while banking a hard left on the racing game of his Blackberry Storm.

"We always almost go to jail," Eliot replied from the plasma screen. He was still in New Orleans so he had to talk to the team via webcam.

"And I'm just sayin'," Hardison continued, "When do you find the time to have all of these women?"

Eliot huffed, "Cause I don't waste my life on World of Witches."

Hardison threw his hand up, "First of all, it's World of Warcraft. War. Craft. As in more fights and machismo than you have in your pinky. And second, some of the hottest women in the world are girl geeks."

Parker stopped fiddling with the practice lock she was working on and raised an eyebrow at Hardison. Hardison swallowed.

"So I've been told," he back stepped.

"Nate, this means a lot to me," Eliot pleaded.

Nate nodded, "I can see that. And that's worries me. Listen, Eliot—"

"We'll do it." Sophie said suddenly.

Everyone looked at her, including Nate.

"Excuse us, "Nate said and took Sophie into the back office.

"You don't do that," Nate said calmly after the door was locked.

Sophie held her hands out, "Nate, we need to take this job."

"He's too close to this. I'd hate the say it, but Hardison's right," he replied.

Sophie shook her head and sighed, "Be a romantic for once in you life. Look at it from his perspective. He fell in love with this girl even though she was taken, practically married, but he fell anyway. Now she's back in his life and he has the chance to mean something to her again. That's nearly impossible to pass up."

Nate took one step closer to Sophie, "You still talking about Eliot?"

Sophie looked at Nate in the eye, "Of course. He's going to do this with or without us. I'd rather we be there to watch his back."

Sophie held his gaze and they stayed frozen at stand still. Then Nate turned to the camouflaged wall-camera that Hardison had installed, but didn't think Nate knew about.

"Hardison, pull up everything one Camille Livingston. Her Business and any local gangs, mobs, etc we should know about," he ordered.

Surprised to be talked to directly, Hardison nearly fell out his chair.

"Yeah, boss," he replied, pulling himself off of the floor as Parker snickered at him.

Ignoring the fall, Nate and Sophie made their way to the office door. He opened it for her.

"I know a place that makes the world's best Jambalaya," he stated.

"Is that so?" she asked coyly, giving him a half smile as she passed by.


End file.
